A Thin Line Between Lion & Snake
by LucyJane93
Summary: There's a thin line between Lion and Snake'. A tale of two likely enemies who, thanks to their meddling professors and friend, become an unlikely romance. But can the relationship, not to mention their sanity, survive? I'm not so good at summaries R
1. Disclaimer & Prologue

Disclaimer; The plot, setting and characters used in this story do not belong to me. They are the property of J.K. Rowling. I respect this and therefore make no profit from this story. It is merely for my own enjoyment and that of others, should they with to read it.

Prologue 

Life as a teenage girl is never simple. Guaranteed. Arguments with your best friends, body hang-ups and that one arrogant guy who thinks the whole world is there to serve him. They are there for every girl.

It's when you're a teenage witch and that certain arrogant guy is one Draco Malfoy that things start to become a little more complicated.


	2. Chapter One: Back Again

Chapter One. Back Again

Excited voices filled the vast hall as students filtered in and made their way towards their respected houses table. They told each other of their holidays and how they were sad it was over, yet still happy to return to school.

Admits this flurry of students was a certain young witch who was talking to no-one while instead her turquoise eyes scanned all the faces of her surrounding peers in search of her closest friend.

Then she spotted her, already seated at the Gryffindor table and talking happily with a familiar face. When she saw them she started to make her was throw with new found energy.

"LJ!" Jasmine exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry. I got caught in the flood." Lucy-Jane smiled warmly at her best friend and her boyfriend, Christopher Ferry.

"Hello Lucy-Jane." he smiled, pleased to see her after the long summer break.

"Please Chris, call me Lucy or LJ. Lucy-Jane is too long winded." she said. "Unless you're telling me off. Then the full name is a must."

Chris laughed. "Yes. 'LJ' just doesn't inflict the same terror does it?"

They all laughed as Lucy took a seat on the bench opposite Jasmine.

"Spoken to The Trio yet?" Jasmine asked.

"Yeah. I travelled up in one of the carriages with them, along with Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood." Lucy replied, including the surnames for Chris' benefit.

Before their conversation could develop any further, Dumbledore stepped up to the podium and started his traditional 'welcome back' speech which was then followed by the sorting of the first years and finally the celebratory feast.

Once the meal was over, everyone retired to their houses common rooms and on to their dormitories where they all fell into a deep sleep and prepared themselves mentally for the first day of classes,

All that was except Lucy, who remained alone in the common room for a short time, simple looking onto the roaring fire and thinking of the year ahead and what it may bring. Taking advantage of the solitude, Lucy took out a piece of parchment, her quill and ink and started to write a short letter to her mother.

_Dear Mother,_

_I know I only bid you farewell this morning however I just wanted to inform you that I had, as expected, arrived safely and all is well. I hope the year ahead treats us both kind and I look forward to seeing you when the Christmas holiday arrives. _

_Be careful while I am gone and good luck with the novel you are currently working on. I know for a fact it shall be another bestseller. _

_Always, your loving niece, _

_Lucy-Jane xx_

Folding the letter up carefully she placed it between the pages of the novel in her hand, taking a mental note to send it tomorrow morning before class. With that, she headed for bed, looking forward to the coming day.


	3. Chapter Two: The Underlord

Chapter Two; The Underlord 

The following morning Lucy awoke at dawn in order to allow herself time for a shower and a leisurely paced preparation for her first day of her sixth year at Hogwarts.

Showered, dressed and a little amount of make-up applied, Lucy headed to the Owlery to send her letter via Jasmine's barn owl.

The journey was a long one and it allowed her time to think of the day ahead and plan her course of action if a certain Malfoy should try any new tricks on her. She thought that after the last five years he would have realised he had no affect on her, regardless of what he did. Well, he did have one affect on her; the ability to make her skin crawl. The arrogance of that boy was beyond her belief.

Letter sent, Lucy headed for the Great Hall where she found that neither Jasmine nor Chris had arrived for breakfast yet. Scanning the hall for a friendly face, Lucy noticed Hermione and Ginny eating together without the boys. Figuring they, like Jas and Chris, were not ready yet, she walked over to them and requested to sit with them.

"Yeah. No problem." both girls smiled at her happily, obviously glad to be back at school after the long summer holiday.

"So why are you two up so early then?" Lucy asked, surprised that she wasn't the only one up at this hour.

"Hermione's normally up at this hour, only still in her dormitory. I just woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep. What about you?" Ginny replied.

"I had to send a letter to my mum this morning. I know we only left yesterday but I worry about her.. Obviously he changes certain details so we are not exposed but I still worry." Lucy said, reaching across the table for the croissants.

"It's understandable. Especially since she is all you have left." Hermione said, raising her eyes from her large textbook on this year's charms.

Lucy half-smiled at her before she turned her attention to her breakfast and started to spread strawberry jam over the warm pastry.

An hour passed before the rest of the student body started to make their way to the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley among them. Appearing to still be half asleep, it took the boys a few moments to register that Lucy was seated at their house table.

"How comes you're sitting with us?" Ron asked, thankfully swallowing his food first.

_Probably not wanting an early morning tongue-lashing from Hermione about his table manners, or lack there of. _

"I think you'll find the correct question would be "Lucy-Jane, to what do we owe this pleasure?" But this is you I am talking to." Lucy grinned humorously.

"Clever git." Ron teased.

As with every new year, once everyone finished their breakfast, timetables were handed out. Like always everyone started to talk excitedly and try to find out who they were in the same classes as.

Lucy read over her timetable to find that it was not entirely dissimilar from that of the year before, with the addition of Apparition. She shared her classes evenly with the other three houses. Charms, Apparition and Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws; Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic and Herbology with the Hufflepuffs; and finally Potions, Astronomy and Defence Against The Dark Arts with the Slytherins.

_"Not _too _bad." _Lucy thought, passing her timetable to Hermione so she could compare.

"Everything together this year, as normal." Hermione smiled.

"What's our first class?" Harry asked, not bothering to consult his own timetable.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins." Lucy sighed. "The Underlord and his faithful disciples."

"Oh joy." Harry grimaced. "Lets all go and give our Prince a warm welcome back."

Lucy laughed at him before exiting the Great Hall to collect the appropriate books for the day.

*

"Miss Matthews, how nice of you to join us." Snape sneered, as she walked into class a few moments late.

"Hello Professor." Lucy smiled with fake cheer.

"And why are you late?" Snape demanded in his monotonous voice.

"Well I think you shall find I am not in fact late. You are merely early." she reasoned, gesturing to the clock upon his desk.

"Right you are Miss Matthews." Snape said, not amused at being proven wrong. "Just try to arrive before I start the class from now on please."

"Yes Professor." she smiled, taking her book and parchment from her bag.

"Well, now we are all here, it's time to assign partners." Snape said, retrieving a list from his desk. "To make it simple I have put you in alphabetically order. First, Anderson and Apple. Up the front please." He instructed, as two groaning teenagers made their way to the front of the class.

This continued for a few minutes before he reached the letter L.

"Livingstone and Littmoden."

The two girls moved across the class to sit together.

Next it was Lucy and she already knew her fate since she and he were the only one's with surnames beginning with M.

"Matthews and Malfoy. To the back bench."

Seeing no point in complaining, Lucy picked up her equipment and bag from her place beside Ron, she moved to the back of the class and seated herself beside the self-proclaimed Slytherin Prince.

"You're not looking all too pleased about this pairing Matthews." Malfoy mocked, his infamous smirk plastered on his obnoxious face.

"Oh this is just a ploy to cover the sheer joy I am feeling inside." Lucy replied, sarcasm dripping from her every word.

This only caused his smirk to become even more pronounced.

"Be careful Malfoy, you might get stuck like that." she said, her hand itching to slap his stupid face.

"Yeah, then you really wouldn't be able to resist me." he purred.

With that comment, Lucy mustered all the strength she possessed and stamped on his foot beneath the bench.

The sheer force of the blow caused Malfoy to yelp in pain.

"What's the matter now Mr Malfoy?" Snape asked from the front of the class where he was writing up the day's instructions on the chalk board.

"Nothing Sir. He must have stubbed his toe on the bench leg." Lucy smiled when Malfoy was in too much shock to respond himself.

"Right. Well I do not wish to hear another sound from either of you for the rest of the lesson." Snape said before turning back to the board.

By the end of the lesson Lucy's humorous nature was wearing thin and she was just about ready to slap Malfoy across his smug face.

"What's the matter?" Draco mocked when I ignored his shallow digs, "Cat got your tongue?"

With that, Lucy snapped. Before Malfoy knew what was going on, Lucy had raised her fist and it was coming for him with extreme force. A loud snapping noise echoed through the classroom and bruising was already appearing around Malfoy's left eye. It was only then that he realised the girl had punched him.

"Right, Miss Matthews and Mr Malfoy. Ten points from each of your houses and detention with me tonight!" Snape leered at the two students, Lucy was still glaring at Malfoy with pure hatred and Malfoy was in a state of shock, one hand over his slowly but surely bruising eye socket.

*

"Bloody hell! That's one way to start the new year." Ron said in shock, Harry laughing beside him.

"Was it really necessary, Lucy? You lost our house points before the year has barely started." Hermione sighed.

"Believe me Hermione, you would have done the same. In fact, didn't you punch him in third year?" Lucy reminded her.

"Yes, but that was out of a classroom." Hermione stated.

"No matter. It was worth it." Lucy grinned, pleased with her productive first day back.


	4. Chapter Three: An Evening With

**Chapter Three: An Evening With My Biggest Fans**

The corridors were completely silent apart from the quiet conversations going on between portraits as Lucy made her way towards Snape's office that evening. She tugged at her twisted skirt, muttering to herself about the absurdity that was the rule of uniform for a detention.

Dragging her reluctant feet the last few paces, Lucy found herself outside Snape's office. She forced herself to knock on the door and Snape answered immediately.

"_Was he standing with his hand on the door handle or something?" _She thought slipping passed him, into the office.

"Mr Malfoy just has to arrive, then we can commence with the detention. Since you are five minutes early feel free to sit silently while we wait." Snape said in this monotone voice.

Lucy obliged and took a seat in the centre row, not wishing to be within hate-aura radius of Snape. It was common knowledge that Snape did not like Lucy and as far as she was concerned the feeling was mutual.

A couple of minutes passed before Malfoy arrived and, after the compulsory 'why you are here' speech, Snape told them what their detention would entail.

"Tonight you shall be cleaning the desks." Snape informed them. "Without magic." "What?!" Malfoy exclaimed. "You mean like Muggles?" he asked, a look of utter disgust on his face.

Lucy and Snape both ignored him.

"But Sir," Lucy pointed out, "that could take hours."

"Then you better get started." Snape said, gesturing for them to leave for the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Already waiting for them were two old steel buckets of soapy water and two new yellow sponges, all neatly placed on the teacher's desk.

"_Well this should be fun." _Lucy thought, sighing heavily.

With heavy feet, she walked to the front of the class to collect herself a bucket and sponge. Carefully, as not to spill any of the soap suds onto the stone floor, she carried her equipment over to the front bench on the right side of the class room, hoping Malfoy would catch on and start on the adjacent bench.

Unfortunately she was not so lucky and Draco carried his bucket towards the bench she was already busy scrubbing.

"Why not start on the other bench, Malfoy?" Lucy suggested. "It would make the job quicker."

Malfoy looked up at her, his distaste for the task written plain across his strong features. "I don't wish to spend my evening in silence, even if my only company is a Gryffindor." he replied as if it was obvious.

"Fine." Lucy said. "Just don't get in my way and don't leave all the work to me either. Try and put a bit of effort in."

"I don't want to be here all evening either, Matthews."

"Then prove it by putting in a little effort and we'll be out of here."

They worked for a few minutes in silence before Lucy attempted to break the silence.

"So Malfoy, what did you do during the summer?"

Malfoy smirked, "Is that your attempt at getting a conversation going?"

"Well I didn't here you trying all the hard." Lucy shot back.

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself so much, I didn't want to disturb you." he mocked her, his smirk still in place.

"Ah, how thoughtful of you." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she resumed scrubbing the desk.

They were now on their second desk and twenty minutes had already passed. Silence had once again come over the pair while they continued to clean the benches. Lucy decided to take the opportunity to ask Malfoy something no one else had ever given her a straight answer to;

"Malfoy, what is the reason for the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin?"

Malfoy stopped scrubbing the wooden bench and looked up at Lucy, meeting her gaze and holding it while he considered his response.

"I think it's because of the feud that occurred between the founders, Gryffindor and Slytherin, when Slytherin wanted to only accept purebloods into his house due to his distrust of Mud-, Muggle-borns." Malfoy quickly corrected himself when Lucy's eyes narrowed. "Also there's the assumption that _all _bad wizards and witches come from Slytherin."

Lucy nodded, "I guess that makes sense then. Plus, Harry Potter can't have really helped." Malfoy looked at her confused, shock that she was speaking of her friend in such a way. "Oh come off it, even I know his arrival at Hogwarts made the rivalry flare up again."

Malfoy shrugged, he couldn't deny it. Potter and his friends had caused Slytherin the house cup in their first year, along with the Quidditch cup, not to mention when he was chosen for the Triwizard Tournament in Fourth year.

Lucy couldn't prevent the small smiled that formed on her lips.

"What are you smiling at?" Malfoy asked, back to his not-so cheerful self.

"You're the first person to give me a straight answer to that question most either shrug it off or tell me 'that's just the way it is', but not you." Lucy told him, the hint of a smile still gracing her face.

"Whatever." he shrugged again, returning to the task of cleaning the benches.

Lucy followed suit, a slight smile still playing at her lips.

Even if she did hate Malfoy she couldn't deny that he had been bearable, if not even pleasantest, company that evening.

An hour and a half passed before they had completed their task. Lucy tapped the bell which Snape had charmed to cause its pair, which Snape had with him, to ring also. Once he was alerted of their completion of the detention, Snape arrived to inspect their work. Satisfied with their efforts he allowed them to leave, not before warning them that if it happened again he would not be so easy on them.

*

"Lucy!" Hermione exclaimed, when she enter through the portrait hole.

Hermione, Jasmine and the boys had been huddled around the fire awaiting her return.

"Hello everyone." Lucy smiled walking over to the gathering of her closest friends.

"Hey Lucy," Harry smiled, looking up from his game of wizard chess against Ron, "how was it?"

"Not too bad." she shrugged, taking a seat beside Hermione on the three piece sofa opposite the quiet embers of the fireplace.

"'Not too bad'?" Ron repeated. "You are aware you just served detention with Malfoy under Snape, right?"

Lucy smiled and nodded. "Well actually Snape was not in the room with us and Malfoy wasn't half bad."

All eyes turned on her, each pair filled with a mixture of shock and confusion.

"What do you mean? That you spent an hour and a half in the presence of only Malfoy and he 'wasn't half bad'?" Ron asked, pure disbelief plastered on his face.

"Yes." Lucy clarified, not understanding why that was so hard to believe.

"But Lucy, honey, you and Malfoy hate each other. It's common knowledge." Jasmine told her.

"Doesn't mean neither of us can be civil to one another when necessary."

"Lucy, Malfoy can't just be civil. He's a Malfoy. It's not who they are." Jasmine said gently, as if explaining to a child why it was wrong.

"Well maybe I just spent the evening with the good twin." she shrugged. "Either way I am tired, so I'm going to bed now. Thank you all for waiting for me, it was very kind of you but I must go to bed now before I fall asleep in class tomorrow and earn myself another detention." Lucy smiled, waving to her friends before retiring to her dormitory for the night.


End file.
